18 March 1939

March 18th, 1939 (SATURDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: The King writes to prime minister Chamberlain

I feel I must send you one line to say how well I can appreciate your feelings about the recent behaviour of the German Government. Although this blow to your courageous efforts on behalf of peace and understanding in Europe must, I am afraid, cause you deep distress, I am sure that your labours have been anything but wasted, for they can have left no doubt in the minds of ordinary people all over the world of our love of peace and our readiness to discuss with any nation whatever grievances they think they have.

At today's Cabinet:

The Prime Minister said that up till a week ago we had proceeded on the assumption that we should be able to continue our policy of getting on to better terms with the Dictator Powers, and that although those Powers had aims, those aims were limited. We had all along had at the back of our minds the reservation that this might not prove to be the case, but we had felt that it was right to try out the possibilities of this course....[Chamberlain] had now come definitely to the conclusion that Herr Hitler's attitude made it impossible to continue to negotiate on the old basis with the Nazi regime. (105)

GERMANY: Von Neurath is appointed Reich Protector for Bohemia and Moravia. More...

U.S.S.R.: Soviet Foreign Minister Maxim Litvinov proposes (for the second time in a year), that France, Poland, Romania, Turkey, the U.K. and the U.S.S.R. join together to form a pact to stop Adolf Hitler. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, probably due to distrust of the Soviet Union, found this action to be premature.

U.S.A.: The first prototype Boeing S-307 Stratoliner, pressurised airliner, crashes during flight testing killing all 10 men aboard.

18 March 1940

March 18th, 1940 (MONDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: London: Walt Disney's new film Pinocchio opens to a warm reception from the critics.

London: A new organisation is formed to liaise between the British and French colonial authorities.

Destroyer HMS Highlander commissioned.

NETHERLANDS: Submarine HNLMS O-24 launched.

GERMANY: U-202 laid down.

ITALY: Brennaro: Hitler and Mussolini met today on the railway station on the Austrian border, and set the world speculating on the possibility of a peace plan. Contrary to the speculation, within two hours of discussion, Hitler extracted a promise that Italy would, eventually, come into the war.

Mussolini was the first to arrive, in his armoured train, 30 minutes later Hitler's train steamed in to a fanfare of trumpets and two national anthems, followed by the Deutschlandlied and the Horst Wessel song. The two dictators exchanged fascist salutes and walked the length of the platform to Mussolini's saloon car for talks over a small table behind drawn blinds. They were joined later by their foreign ministers, Count Ciano and von Ribbentrop. It is understood that Ciano is strongly opposed to Italian intervention. The atmosphere at the talks was described as cordial.

U.S.A.: Destroyers USS Edison and Ericsson laid down.

18 March 1941

March 18th, 1941 (TUESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: London: Lord Woolton says that Britain should be ready for much greater restrictions and that she would have to go back to days of simpler living. He declares that the greatest need was in the animal protein group - bacon, eggs, cheese, and meat. he was greatly concerned about the shortage of some of these commodities, particularly of cheese. He says that England was so short of cheese that, if he week to ration it, the people would have a cube of one inch, per person, per week.

RAF Bomber Command: 2 Group: 23 Blenheims from Nos. 21, 105 and 110 Squadrons attack Wilhelmshaven. Alternative targets of the harbour at Bremerhaven and oil tanks at Rotterdam were also attacked.

Later this evening 51 Blenheims are despatched to Wilhelmshaven of which 31 claim to bomb the target. Secondary attacks are also aimed at Ostend, Rotterdam, Waalhaven, De Kooy, barges in the Maas, searchlights at Enkhuisen and Emden. One aircraft FTR.

Minesweeper HMS Rothesay launched.

Submarine HMS Thorn launched.

GERMANY: Berlin: The Germans announce that the British have lost 3,784 aircraft between June 23, 1940 and end of February 1941.

U-464 laid down.

ALBANIA: Despite the official decision to discontinue their offensive, the Italians launch seven separate attacks south of the Vojussa river. (Mike Yaklich)

TANGIER INTERNATIONAL ZONE: Spain annexes Tangier. The international zone had been established in 1923 and 1924 by the Tangier Convention between France, Spain and the U.K. providing for permanent neutralization of the area and government by an international commission. International administration was restored on 11 October 1945.

EGYPT: C-in-C Middle East reports to War Office:

Night 16-17th FAA attacked shipping in Valona and Durazzo. Three certain hits including one on cruiser or destroyer, and two possible hits claimed.

C-in-C Middle East also reports to the Admiralty outlining the impossibility of sending naval forces to operate out of Yugoslavian ports to attack the Adriatic coast of Italy. They have insufficient forces as they must be used to cover the transfer of troops to Greece and even so the Yugoslav ports are wide open to air attack from aircraft based on the Italian mainland.

EAST AFRICA: GENERAL RAIMONDO LORENZINI, technically only the commander of the 2nd Colonial Brigade, but also the de facto tactical commander for the most important sector of the defenses of Keren (Italian East Africa) is killed. He had previously been placed in command of the four colonial brigades, including his own, which had defended Agordat. Lorenzini was killed while personally leading one of several (unsuccessful) counterattacks (they eventually numbered seven in a five-day period) aimed at recapturing the key position of Fort Dologorodoc, whose fall proved the turning point in the 57-day British/Commonwealth battle to take Keren and the precipitous pass leading up to it. Lorenzini, considered one of the best and brightest of the younger generation of colonial commanders, had previously fought in the original conquest of Ethiopia, and his brigade had been heavily involved in the tough fight for Tug Argan pass during the Italian capture of British Somalia in August 1940. (Michael F. Yaklich)

U.S.A.: Destroyers USS Cowie and Knight laid down.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 0400, Medjerda, a straggler from Convoy SL-68, was hit by one torpedo from U-105 north of the Cape Verde Islands, broke in two and sank within 30 seconds. The master, 51 crewmembers and two gunners were lost.

18 March 1942

March 18th, 1942 (WEDNESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Vice Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten, Queen Victoria's grandson, is named Chief of Combined Operations.

Destroyer HMS Undine laid down.

Frigate HMS Tay launched.

GERMANY: During the day, RAF Bomber Command dispatches five Wellingtons to bomb Essen but they return due to lack of cloud cover.

U-851 laid down.

U-263 launched.

U-411 commissioned.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Off Brindisi; The British submarine HMS Upholder sinks the Italian submarine Tricheco.

BURMA: Pilots of the 3d Fighter Squadron, American Volunteer Group (AVG, aka, “The Flying Tigers”) attack a Japanese airfield near Moulmein at 0755 hours destroying three bombers, two transports and 11 fighters on the ground.

CHINA: USN river gunboat Tutuila (PR-4), decommissioned at Chungking, China, on 18 January, is leased to the Chinese government for the duration of the war.

NEW HEBRIDES: U.S. Army troops, two companies of the 182d Infantry and an engineer company, arrive on Efate Island to build an airfield.

AUSTRALIA: On the day after General Douglas MacArthur"> MacArthur arrived in Australia, the USAAF operational strength consists of about 213 combat aircraft, i.e., 12 B-17 Flying Fortresses, 27 A-24 Dauntless dive bombers, several miscellaneous light and medium bombers, 33 P-39and 52 P-400 Airacobras, 92 P-40s and miscellaneous transport and other noncombat aircraft. Approximately 100 additional aircraft are being repaired or assembled. Very few of the fighter pilots are experienced or well trained and most of the bomber crews are exhausted and have low morale.

In the morning, General Douglas MacArthur sends his staff officers by plane south from Alice Springs, Northern Territory, while he orders up a special train for himself and his family. Jean MacArthur will have no more flying. The MacArthurs board a three-car wooden train drawn by a steam locomotive, that scuttles down a narrow-gauge line. The train chugs off on a 70-hour journey down 1,028 miles (1654 kilometres) of track to Adelaide, South Australia.

CANADA: Canadian forces establish unified military commands in Atlantic, Newfoundland, Pacific areas.

U.S.A.: President Franklin D. Roosevelt issues Executive Order 9102 which creates the War Relocation Authority (WRA) under the directorship of Milton S. Eisenhower, to "Take all people of Japanese descent into custody, surround them with troops, prevent them from buying land, and return them to their former homes at the close of the war." As a result, 120,000 men, women, and children were rounded up on the West Coast. Three categories of internees were created: Nisei (native U.S. citizens of Japanese immigrant parents), Issei (Japanese immigrants), and Kibei (native U.S. citizens educated largely in Japan). The internees were transported to one of ten relocation centers in California, Utah, Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho, Colorado, and Wyoming. One Japanese American, Gordon Hirabayashi, fought internment all the way to the Supreme Court. He argued that the Army, responsible for effecting the relocations, had violated his rights as a U.S. citizen. The court ruled against him, citing the nation's right to protect itself against sabotage and invasion as sufficient justification for curtailing his and other Japanese Americans' constitutional rights. (Jack McKillop and Scott Peterson) More...

Aircraft carrier USS Wasp laid down.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: Near convoy SL.119 a Liberator aircraft (Sqdn 120/F) attacked U-653. During the crash diving one man was lost. (There was a report that the man was saved by a British destroyer.) The boat was seriously damaged and had to limp back to base, reaching Brest, France on 30 August. (Alex Gordon)

German submarines are still active off the coast of North and South Carolina, U.S.A.. (1) U-124 torpedoes two unarmed U.S. tankers: the first is torpedoed and sunk 7 miles (11 kilometres) off the coast of North Carolina north of Cape Hatteras and the second is torpedoed about 40 miles south southeast of Beaufort, South Carolina; this ship is irreparably damaged and sinks on 20 March; and (2) U-332 sinks an unarmed tanker about 48 miles (77 kilometres) south southeast of Beaufort, South Carolina.

At 0827, the unescorted and unarmed E.M. Clark was hit by one torpedo from U-124 about 22 miles SW of the Diamond Shoals Lighted Buoy, as she was proceeding completely blacked out at 10.5 knots in a moderately rough sea. Thunderstorms in the area had generated enough light to silhouette her. The torpedo struck the port side amidships, eight to ten feet below the waterline. The explosion damaged the area around the bridge, destroyed one lifeboat and the radio antenna. An attempt to repair the antenna was unsuccessful, because a second torpedo struck the port side at the forward hold and caused the ship to sink ten minutes after the first hit. All but a messman in the crew of eight officers and 33 men abandoned ship in two lifeboat, while the whistle of the ship jammed and roared continuously. 26 men in the first lifeboat were picked up by the Venezuelan steam tanker Catatumbo and landed at Cape Henry. The remaining survivors in the other boat were picked up by destroyer USS Dickerson and transferred them to the motor surfboat USCGC 5426 from the Ocracoke Coast Guard station, which took these men ashore.

At 0114, the unescorted Kassandra Louloudi was torpedoed and sunk by U-124. USCGC Dione picked up the survivors.

Near Convoy SL-119, a 120 Sqn RAF Liberator attacked U-653. During the crash dive one man was lost. (There was a report that the man was saved by a British destroyer.) The boat was seriously damaged and had to limp back to base, reaching Brest, France on 30 August.

18 March 1943

March 18th, 1943 (THURSDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM:

Destroyer HMS Stevenstone commissioned.

Submarine HMS Surf commissioned.

Minesweeper HMS Postillion launched.

Destroyer HMS Hardy launched.

GERMANY: US bombers attack Vegesack.

U-363, U-968 commissioned.

U-1101 laid down.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: At 0834, U-593 attacked a small convoy near Derna, Cyrenaica and sank two ships, Dafila and Kaying. The master, nine crewmembers and five gunners from Dafila were picked up by armed whaler SAS Southern Maid and landed at Derna. 19 crewmembers and three gunners were lost. The badly damaged Kaying foundered the next day in heavy weather. Seven crewmembers and two gunners were lost. The master, 67 crewmembers and four gunners were rescued and landed at Alexandria.

TUNISIA: Gafsa falls to Darby's Rangers of Patton's II Corps, which pushes on to El Guettar. (Jeff Chrisman)

ALGERIA: Algiers: General Giraud has issued a series of decrees abolishing Nazi-inspired anti-Semitic laws in Vichy France. In general, says Giraud, all laws passed in France since the armistice was signed on 22 June 1940 are null and void.

Specifically, all discrimination in citizenship against Jews as such is abolished. They are to be reinstated into the public service, and their property is to be returned. European Jews will be treated by law as Frenchmen; North African Jews as Arabs.

BURMA: Allied soldiers give up the attempt to drive the Japanese from Donbaik.

CANADA: Minesweeper HMCS Bayfield departed Esquimalt for Halifax via Panama Canal.

U.S.A.:

Submarine USS Threadfin laid down.

Destroyer USS Cassin Young laid down.

Destroyer escort USS Swasey launched.

Destroyer USS Cowell launched.

SOUTH AMERICA: French Guiana declares itself on the side of the Free French.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 1643, U-221 hit the Walter Q. Gresham in station #21 of Convoy HX-229 with a stern shot and sank her SE of Cape Farewell. At 16.49 hours, one FAT and two standard torpedoes were fired. The FAT missed and detonated at the end of it's run, while the other two struck the Canadian Star in station #23, which sank in 15 minutes. The master, 22 crewmembers, 2 gunners and nine passengers from the Canadian Star were lost. 33 crewmembers, 6 gunners and 15 passengers were picked up by HMS Anemone and Pennywort and landed at Gourock. Master Robert David Miller was posthumously awarded the Lloyd’s War Medal for bravery at sea.

SS Mollie Pitcher sunk by a coup de grâce from U-521 at 0550.

At 1540, Clarissa Radcliffe, a straggler from Convoy SC-122 since a heavy storm on 9 March, was torpedoed and sunk by U-663 west of Boston. Three torpedoes missed the ship, before the fourth sank the ship almost immediately. The master, 42 crewmembers and 12 gunners were lost.

18 March 1944

March 18th, 1944 (SATURDAY)

FRANCE: Paris: Picasso's play Le Désir attrapé par la queue is read in the Leirises' drawing room. Maria Casares, the actress, along with Sartre, Camus and de Beauvoir reads parts of the play.

GERMANY:

U-1277 launched.

U-400 commissioned.

AUSTRIA: Salzburg: Hitler detains Hungary's regent, Admiral Horthy, in Salzburg and orders the German army to occupy Hungary.

INDIA: Imphal: As General Mutaguchi's men press forward towards the vital military base at Imphal on a massive front. General Slim is belatedly rushing troops north from the Arakan to try to repel them. The Japanese have caught them on the hop with their attack which came a week earlier than he had predicted.

To add to Slim's woes, Operation Thursday, the attack by glider-borne Chindits behind enemy lines near Indaw, has failed to make much impact. The plan was to cut off Japanese forces in northern Burma, re-opening the route between Ledo and Kunming. Despite cutting the Mandalay to Myitkyina railway, Wingate's crack troops find themselves sidelines temporarily by the Imphal battle.

Slim's tactic is to pull his troops back to the Imphal plain and entice the Japanese to follow, thus lengthening the enemy's supply lines through difficult territory and shortening his own. The 20th Indian Division, hard pressed by the Japanese 33rd Division, has withdrawn from Tamu to the hills and is now virtually blocking the Imphal road. To the north, Mutaguchi is poised to attack Sangsak, the gateway to his second main target: Kohima, a rail and supplies centre almost as important as Imphal.

Air Commando Combat Mission N0. 32 2:45 Flight time Repeated same mission as yesterday.

Notes: When I returned to the states, my journal was taken from me prior to departing from Casablanca, Morocco. We were told to make sure our name and address was on our stuff being taken. I remember there was a pile of notes, diaries, journals, etc., about a foot high.

We had been issued the baggy pants and jackets that were really paratroopers gear. A very officious, 2nd Lt of course, told me that my jacket was not Air Force issue and I would have to dispose of it or would not be allowed on the plane. We always had words for these type of people (C.S.) but spoken only to those who are at your pecking level. You can bet I got rid of the jacket.

What the Lt did not know was my traveling companion had a folding stock carbine hung over his shoulder and covered with his rain coat. The last time I saw the guy was walking out of the airport at La Gaurdia field in New York with raincoat and carbine still intact.

A couple years after the war the journal was returned by the Air Force. (Chuck Baisden)

CANADA:

Tug HMCS Blissville assigned to Cornwallis , Nova Scotia.

Submarine HMS Seawolf ASW training Halifax , Nova Scotia.

RCN dive tender DT 6 ordered Shelburne Shipbuilding Co.

RCN boom attendant vessels HC 284, 285, 286, 287, 290 ordered.

U.S.A.:

Aircraft carrier USS Enterprise supported US landing at Emirau.

Destroyer escort USS Jaccard launched.

Frigate USS Lorain launched.

Destroyer escort USS Earl V Johnson commissioned.

Frigate USS Grand Forks commissioned.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: Destroyer HS Kanaris collided with cruiser HMS Hawkins. No casualties.

18 March 1945

March 18th, 1945 (SUNDAY)

GERMANY: Bingen and Bad Kreuznack fall to US forces. Kolberg falls to the Polish First Army. The Red Army closes in on the Baltic ports of Gdynia and Danzig.

Berlin: Albert Speer, the armaments minister, tells Hitler that the war is lost and economic collapse is nigh; Hitler insists that he retracts these comments.

US Private First Class Frederick C. Murphy, an aid man, is wounded in the shoulder soon after his comrades have jumped off in a dawn attack against the Siegfried Line at Saarlautern. He refused to withdraw for treatment and continued forward, administering first aid under heavy machinegun, mortar, and artillery fire. When the company ran into a thickly sown antipersonnel minefield and began to suffer more and more casualties, he continued to disregard his own wound and unhesitatingly braved the danger of exploding mines, moving about through heavy fire and helping the injured until he stepped on a mine which severed one of his feet. In spite of his grievous wounds, he struggled on with his work, refusing to be evacuated and crawling from man to man administering to them while in great pain and bleeding profusely. He was killed by the blast of another mine which he had dragged himself across in an effort to reach still another casualty. (MOH) More... (Russell Folsom)

U-3528 commissioned.

ITALY: Rome: Pope Pius XII attacks Nazi racial policies.

FINLAND: The first post-war parliamentary elections are held. The results are:
Socialdemocratic Party 50 seats (out of 200)

Finnish People's Democratic League (communists and fellow-travellers) 49 (38 of them communists)

Agrarian League (centrist) 49

National Coalition Party (conservative) 28

Swedish People's Party (rightist language minority interest party) 15

National Progress Party (liberal) 9

BURMA: Lt Karamjeet Singh Judge (b.1923), 15th Punjab Regt., eliminated ten Japanese bunkers and was mortally wounded going in to mop up another. (Victoria Cross)

PACIFIC: The US 5th Fleet begins 4 days of carrier raids against the Japanese Home Islands.

USS Franklin and Wasp are badly damaged by Kamikaze Attacks. Carrier Franklin sustains 832 dead, making it the largest number ever casualty list on any US naval vessel. Among the targets is Kure. Six IJN carriers and 3 battleships sustain damage.
This was Task Force 58 (TF 58) (Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitscher) consisting of:

Task Group 58.1 (TG 58.1) (Rear Admiral Joseph J. Clark) consisting of Carrier Division Five (CarDiv 5) with

USS Bennington (CV-20) with Carrier Air Group Eighty Two (CVG-82)

USS Hornet (CV-12) with CVG-17

USS Wasp (CV-18) with CVG-86

USS Belleau Wood (CVL-24) with Light Carrier Air Group Thirty (CVLG-30)

TG 58.2 (Rear Admiral Ralph E. Davison) consisting of CarDiv 2 with:

USS Franklin (CV-13) with CVG-5

USS Hancock (CV-19) with CVG-6

USS Bataan (CVL-29) with CVLG-47

USS Jacinto (CVL-30) with CVLG-45

TG 58.3 (Rear Admiral Frederick C. Sherman) consisting of CarDiv1 with:

USS Bunker Hill (CV-17) with CVG-84

USS Essex (CV-9) with CVG-83

USS Cabot (CVL-28) with CVLG-29

TG 58.4 (Rear Admiral Arthur W. Radford) consisting of CarDiv 6 with:

USS Enterprise (CV-6) with Night Carrier Air Group Ninety [CVG(N)-90]

USS Intrepid (CV-11) with CVG-10

USS Yorktown (CV-10) with CVG-9

USS Langley (CVL-27) with CVLG-23

TF 58 had departed Ulithi Atoll in the Caroline Islands on 14 March.

Beginning at 0545 hours local, aircraft of TF 58 began an interdiction campaign to prevent Japanese shipping and aircraft with interfering with Operation ICEBERG, the invasion of Okinawa. An estimated 275 Japanese aircraft were destroyed on the ground at 45 airfields attacked that day.

Three carriers, USS Enterprise (CV-6), USS Intrepid (CV-11) and USS Yorktown (CV-10), are slightly damaged between 0725 and 1300 hours when hit by Japanese bombs or kamikaze near misses.

Between 0030 and 1640 hours, 97 Japanese aircraft are shot down by carrier-based Grumman F6F Hellcats and Chance Vought F4U Corsairs over Kyushu and waters surrounding the island. US Marine Corps pilots flying F4Us from four carriers account for 27 of the 97. The carriers with Marine units are:

USS Bennington (CV-20) with Marine Fighting Squadron One Hundred Twelve (VMF-112),

USS Bunker Hill (CV-17) with VMF-451, and

USS Franklin (CV-13) with VMF-214 and VMF-452.

>From the "Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships"

"Before dawn on 19 March 1945, Franklin, Captain Leslie E. Gehres, commanding, launched a fighter sweep against Honshu and later a strike against shipping in Kobe Harbor. Suddenly, a single enemy plane pierced the cloud cover and made a low level run on the gallant ship to drop two semi-armor piercing bombs. One struck the flight deck centerline, penetrating to the hangar deck, effecting destruction and igniting fires through the second and third decks, and knocking out the combat information center and air plot. The second hit aft, tearing through two decks and fanning fires that triggered ammunition, bombs, and rockets. Franklin, within 50 miles (93 kilometers) of the Japanese mainland, lay dead in the water, took a 13-degree starboard list, lost all radio communications, and broiled under the heat from enveloping fires."

Another source states that the aircraft was possibly a "Judy" dive bomber [Yokosuka D4Y, Navy Carrier Bomber Suisei (Comet)].

U.S.A.: Destroyer USS Eugene A Greene launched.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-866 (type IXC/40) is sunk north-east of Boston, in position 43.18N, 61.08W, by depth charges from the US destroyer escorts USS Lowe, Menges, Pride and Mosley. 55 dead (all hands lost). (Alex Gordon)

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